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I rode it. It was very nice outside.
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Mar 16, 2009 04:49
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:39 |
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Went for a short spin, then the bike tried to strand me. Went to start it up, and just got a click before everything died. I ripped the plastics off in the parking lot I was in, and eventually disconnected the computer. It fired right up then. I rode home, and then cleaned the chain. Not sure what's up with the computer, but for now I'm just gonna disconnect it when I'm not riding.
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Apr 8, 2009 04:29
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Z3n posted:The computer? http://trailtech.net/vapor.html
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Apr 8, 2009 14:21
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Z3n posted:Ahh, I see. I'd check your charging system just to be on the safe side. You should get 14ish volts at the battery at around 1/3rd of total RPM or 4k, whichever is lower. Haven't checked the charging system yet. Last I checked (about two weeks ago when I was diagnosing a bad wire related to the Vapor) it was pretty steady with just over 14V
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Apr 8, 2009 19:46
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I got my ride inspected, finally. I've owned it since August, and the inspection has been out a lot longer than that. Tomorrow, 400 mile ride to the other side of Texas!
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Apr 10, 2009 18:56
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Rode it 380 or so miles. F yeah.blugu64 posted:Pics or it doesn't happen. Just outside of Midland, Texas.  The headphones look like a pull-string for my bike. I like it. A few hours after I got to Odessa a badass thunderstorm came through and dropped slightly larger than golfball sized hail and enough wind (possibly small tornado?) to rip a house apart a mile from my parents place. Luckily the littlest ninja was safely tucked away in my dad's shop for the evening.
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Apr 12, 2009 05:32
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Rode it 480 miles. I took the long way home, and it was glorious. No honest man needs more than a Ninja 250 (and some spare oil) to tour.
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Apr 14, 2009 03:36
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Finally pulled the ninjette out of the garage and took it to the shop to get a new chain/sprockets, rear tire, and brake pads put on. Non-motorcycle life has been kicking my rear end for a while now. Riding to the shop felt great, and I'm excited about getting the bike back next weekend. Almost two months is too long.
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Jun 7, 2009 05:21
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Commuted on it. 30 minutes or so each direction. Been doing that for about a week now, as my car's in the shop getting some raccoon damage fixed. I've enjoyed it, even with the extra hassle of having to carry a backpack (for my work laptop and clothes) in summertime in Texas. Its not bad going to work, but I'm a little sweaty when I get home.
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Jun 23, 2009 03:42
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I've been lazy and haven't posted this for a couple days. I suck. blugu64 and I worked on his bike last Saturday, doing the coolant and valves. As he said earlier in this thread, it was 105F out, and it was glorious. He had been complaining about his bike overheating a bit while terrorizing suburban neighborhoods taking shortcuts and what-have-you, so he wanted to flush the coolant and adjust the valves on his ninjette. We worked at my place, because I have a garage. While taking all the plastics off his bike, blugu64 noticed the reason why his bike was overheating. All the coolant had leaked out! A bolt decided to part ways with the bike at some point in the past, which loosed up what I think is the return hose from the engine. All that was left in it was a few ounces of coolant - nothing more than a few drips at most. I'm amazed it ran so well! BOLT GOES HERE  (click for big) I grabbed that bolt off my bike and one matching another bolt I've been missing since my last road trip, and we took off to Elliots Hardware to find suitable replacements. Replacements were had, and work continued. For beating the heat in Texas, not much beats Shiner Bock. Its even better when your hands leave dirty fingerprints on the label.   So as I listened to Tejano music on a little crappy radio plugged into the only outlet in my garage (right in the middle of the ceiling), bitching about the heat and drinking shiner, blugu64 managed to adjust the valves on his bike. Once things were back together sufficiently, we filled the radiator up and started purging air out of that thing. I snapped a photo of my garage while it was warming up.  There was a ton of air the cooling system, and getting it out took forever. I'm still not totally sure we purged it all before we gave up, but I'll defer to blugu as to whether he has had to purge again since. After we got his bike together, we threw a minor amount of gear on (helmet and jacket), and went for a spin to the local QT for some Gatorade. It tasted fantastic, and the 40mph 105F breeze felt amazing.
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Jul 1, 2009 03:09
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Commuted in crazy-rear end July Dallas heat. 102.5F today. On my way to work there was crazy traffic. The highway I take was at a dead stop for maybe 3 miles. The three lane tollway was shut down to one lane by a wreck. I quickly learned to lanesplit to get out of that mess, as I was already late for work and it was already 85F outside. I still arrived just as my boss was pulling in, even though I was over an hour later than normal. (dropped my car off at the mechanic) 
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Jul 17, 2009 04:57
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Applied for the title and registered it in the grand state of Texas! Now I can ride around! $223 more in the governments pocket. 
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Aug 19, 2009 00:29
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Changed the oil and adjusted the balancer chain on the KLR650. Recovered the seat on the EX250.
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Aug 22, 2009 23:24
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Stuck a center stand on the KLR. Should make putting new tires on easier when I do that this weekend/next week (depending on when I get time). The tires came in earlier this week, but I haven't been able to do more than look at them.
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Aug 29, 2009 01:19
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Took rear wheel with new tire and pinched tube to shop, got new tube put in, took wheel home, put on KLR, took front wheel off, put front wheel in car, put new tire in car. Getting the front tire changed out tomorrow.
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Sep 2, 2009 03:56
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I finally took the Ninjette's seat off my kitchen table and stuck it on the bike. Then I rode it around for the first time since I bought the KLR. It feels so tiny now, but its still fun as hell to ride. Family photo time! 
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Sep 27, 2009 20:40
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Rode it to work (all the way across the street). Rode it to lunch at a nice Turkish place Rode it to dinner at an okay chicken place Rode it to a friends place to help him carry a 50' mast (from a sail boat) into his back yard from the bed of a truck. Rode it home, in the rain, in January, in summer gear. Luckily this is Texas, and its 65F out right now for some freak reason.
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Jan 20, 2010 04:35
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Started up the ninjette for the first time in quite a while. It didn't want to idle with the choke off and didn't want to take any throttle, so I figured setting for most of 6 months had left the carbs a mess. I pulled them, opened them up, and they look pretty darn clean. Not sure what's up with that, so I put them back together and they're waiting to be reunited with the air box and the engine. Also blugu64 took his transalp home after garaging it here for a few weeks. I followed him in my car so I could give him a ride back to his car. Glad to see the TA getting some road time, even if its running pretty poorly at the moment. The KLR got taken out long enough to get out of the way so I had room to work on the ninjette. It fired right up and was happy as a clam, as always.
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Jan 25, 2010 03:30
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Yeah, the pilots looked fine. There was a bit of gunk near the pilot circuit outlet on one carb. It has been removed. I just had a sudden burst of productivity and put the carbs back on. I hooked up the gas tank and battery long enough to fire it up, and it started no problem. I'll see how it behaves without choke tomorrow, when I won't be annoying the neighbors.
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Jan 25, 2010 04:16
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Got the ninjette all back together. It seems to idle better, and I rode it around a little. Next up on my list of stuff is some electrical work. I started to get things done, but I'm a little puzzled at what's going on. That's more a thing for the questions thread, though.
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Jan 26, 2010 03:01
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I finally properly spliced enough wires to hook up the trailtech vapor I have on the ninjette to the wiring harness without doing very, very naughty things with wires. Now the battery is charging, and assuming everything on it runs okay its going up on craigslist.
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Feb 28, 2010 20:57
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Showed it to a craigslist person. I think this is worth $1000 or more:  Its listed for $1000 He wasted a ton of my time and wanted to give $700 for it. 
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Mar 4, 2010 04:57
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n8r posted:List it for more than you are willing to take and negotiate down. That's how things work, people want to feel like they are getting a good deal. Well the guy wanted to give $750 (which is as much as he would come up) or he walked.... to go buy an older salvage title ninja for $1200. I let him. Maybe I should have listed it for $1200 but I have zero interest in dickering with a person to stroke their ego. I guess that'll cost me some time on selling it.
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Mar 5, 2010 00:28
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Sold it! Got $800 for it. The buyer was a super nice guy.
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Mar 7, 2010 00:22
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Wasn't today (was Wednesday), but took it 900 miles in the back of a F250. Wish I could have ridden it to Colorado, but I didn't exactly have the time to mess around with making two trips.
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Apr 4, 2010 02:48
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Got the KLR out after work and went tooling around a bit. I didn't go too far because I haven't really done much in the way of maintenance on it in a while. God drat it was a nice day out today.
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Apr 9, 2010 02:05
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Bolted aluminum panniers on the KLR. Should be nice for camping on the bike whenever the weather stops sucking. They were spendy, but the quality is pretty nice.
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Apr 24, 2010 04:04
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niethan posted:How hard is it to get a kickstart onto a KLR? 96 and newer: Not gonna happen.
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Apr 27, 2010 02:21
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Received a 320mm front rotor, caliper relocation bracket, and new brake pads. Removed wheel, removed rotor, installed new rotor, unbolted caliper, removed brake pads, installed new brake pads, discovered caliper relocation bracket didn't fit, emailed company who sold me the kit with 'wtf?', closed garage, went inside. 
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Apr 30, 2010 04:14
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^ Nice avatar ^ Big day for the KLR. Installed nerf bars. Did the doohickey. Installed a new bash plate. All stuff I'd been planning to do for a while, but JOB SECURITY got in the way for a bit. That's all better now, though, so the KLR gets presents.  Nerf bars, mostly for the highway peg benefits. Additional radiator protection isnt a bad thing, though. The strap you see is holding up the front caliper, because the asshats I bought a 320mm rotor from sent me the wrong caliper relocation bracket.  Yay symmetry. You can see the new rotor in the shot, too. Wish I could use it.  Outer rotor cover off. Small starter gears out.  Whoops. Broke that getting the rotor bolt out. Luckily it was a cheap one, and the slightly less cheap husky brand one held up.  Rotor out. Starter gear is next.  Doohickey!  Old doohickey out, old spring out, inner rotor cover off.  Old doo meet new doo  Managed to hurt myself trying to install the torsion spring, which is normal. It started dripping after that, so I had to go in and wash it out and bandage it up. I gave up on the torsion spring because that bastard is impossible, and installed a new old-style spring instead.  Bash plate. After everything was in and on and happy I put new oil in and fired it up. It still starts and runs, which is a pretty good thing considering what I tore in to.
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May 2, 2010 02:54
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FINALLY got my caliper relocation bracket for the 320mm rotor. Never order from klr650.com, they are clowns who can't manage what customer has what address and what part number is what part. Got it on, and I ended up with a very slight periodic hang when turning the wheel. Turns out one of the provided bolts is juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust too long, and baaaaaaaaaaaaaaarely makes contact with the round bits that connect the outer part of the rotor to the inner part.  Off to find a washer or a shorter bolt or a file. Then its riding time 
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Jun 3, 2010 01:53
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Just wait for a day with really steady strong winds, and pick a perpendicular road to ride up and down. Since I can't have a working bike, I decided after a short jaunt (after a washer fixed my rotor problem) to tackle the sticky throttle problem I just noticed. Kawasaki uses brass screws that are butter soft in the worst places. It was getting dark, so tomorrow I will drill the head out of the screw I stripped and see if I can't lube the throttle cables.
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Jun 3, 2010 04:28
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Put new throttle cables on the KLR. Throttle returns great now. Took a spin to start bedding in the front brake pads. After a few stops my front brake felt about like it did on the old rotor, which I suppose is a good sign. Since everything is running now I guess I should get the bike titled in Colorado tomorrow morning.
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Jun 10, 2010 02:05
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The KLR or your other bike? The KLR is kind of a punk to pick up, what with its high center of gravity.
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Jun 17, 2010 03:58
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N183CS posted:My Happy Trail panniers just came in, rendering my F650 useless to me. ...They are now covered in bugs [edit] oh right pics  Click here for the full 1280x850 image. sklnd fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Jun 20, 2010 |
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Jun 20, 2010 03:55
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Its better than the stock one, that's for sure. I'm no longer nervous about short yellow lights on 60mph highways.
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Jun 20, 2010 16:41
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Nah, Boulder Colorado (note Colorado license plate and proximity to Wyoming in previous picture). They're all over the place on state highways out here. I've also seen them in West Texas, though usually in tandem with a warning light a quarter mile back that would go off when its green but will change before you get to the light.
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Jun 20, 2010 20:55
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Lubed the KLR's chain. Checked the air in the tires. Put the front at 32 and the rear at 34. I'm almost ready for my 4th of July trip. The minimal route is 1400 miles, maximal sane route is around 1700 miles with a stop at the VLA. Tomorrow I pack the bike. Friday night I check everything over and make sure I'm ready to go. Saturday bright and early its time for 700 miles southwayward. Sunday and Monday is family time, seeing my new nephew and 4 year old niece. Tuesday and Wednesday I need to wander my way home through whatever roads may take me there. Trip is Boulder, Colorado to Odessa, Texas, then back. Right now I'm thinking on the way back 385 north, then 214 at Seminole through Denver City, then hang a left at 380 all the way to I-25. Spend the night in Socorro, hit the VLA bright and early, then take 60 to 41 through Moriarty to 285 at Santa Fe, then ride that all the way to Denver. This should hit a ton of roads in NM I've never been on. Really the only section I'm familiar with is 380 from Plains to Roswell. The rest should be an altogether new experience for me, which is a big deal as I think I've seen the rest of NM at one point or another. Can't wait!
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Jul 1, 2010 06:03
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Armacham posted:have fun! Hope you have a comfortable seat like mine Nah, still rockin the stocker seat. I narrowly missed a dished corbin seat a few weeks ago for $100 on cl. I plan to stand a lot. 700 miles the first day. First day on the way back should be just shy of 400, and 500 should get the remaining distance. That 700 mile day is only twice the longest I've gone in a day on the KLR. This is a great idea, yes?
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Jul 2, 2010 06:17
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:39 |
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I'm less worried about rear discomfort and more worried about getting my rear end kicked by a thunderstorm late in the day. The weather down in West Texas has been very wet for the area of late, and storms down there get flat out nasty. [edit]. Saturday Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Highs in the mid 80s. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
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Jul 2, 2010 06:32
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